Safety shield for cotton carding machines



April 15, 1969 w. A. POWELL 3,438,092

SAFETY SHIELD FOR COTTON CARDING MACHINES Filed Jan. 9, 1967 Sheet of 2 Fig .2 24

William A. Powell INVENTOR.

April 15, 1969 w. A. POWELL 3,438,092

SAFETY SHIELD FOR COTTON CARDING MACHINES Filed Jan. 9. 1967 Sheet 2 of 2 Fig.3

William A. Powell IN VENTOR.

BY M m United States Patent Ofiice 3,438,092 Patented Apr. 15, 1969 3,438,092 SAFETY SHIELD FOR COTTON CARDING MACHINES William A. Powell, 304 Meadow Park Drive, Anderson, S.C. 29621 Filed Jan. 9, 1967, Ser. No. 608,079 Int. Cl. D01g 15/46; D01b 3/04, 3/00 US. Cl. 19-106 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE This invention generally relates to a safety shield for use with a conventional cotton carding machine having web crush rolls associated therewith for preventing the fingers and hands of an operator from entering the space between the coacting crush rollers such as might occur if it were necessary to manually insert the starting end or lead end of the web or roving between the crush rollers.

In some carding machine installations, the textile web or roving is removed from the doffer roller of a carding machine and subsequently passes between a pair of coacting crushing rollers which are employed for ironing the fibers and/ or crushing seeds or other impurities therein. When first starting the web between the crushing rollers, it is common practice for an operator to feed the web in by hand to the nip of the crushing rollers. As can be appreciated, this practice is somewhat dangerous to the operator inasmuch as his fingers may be caught by the rotating crush rollers and resultant injury can occur. Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a safety shield for association with the crushing rollers and the conventionally provided stripper roll and redirecting roll between the dofler cylinder and the crush ing rollers to prevent entry of the hands and fingers between the crushing rollers and to provide a self-threading mechanism for the web into the nip of the crushing rollers, eliminating the need of feeding the web by hand.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a safety shield in accordance with the preceding object in which the shield is in the form of a pair of elongated arcuate plate-like members being adjustable in relation to each other and in relation to the associated components of a carding machine in order to enable the safety shield to be easily and quickly attached to the existing carding machine and to be adjusted to position the protective plates in the optimum position in relation to the existing components of the carding machine.

Still another object of the present invention is to provide a safety shield which is quite simple in construction, easy to attach, easy to adjust, effective for its protective purposes and relatively inexpensive to manufacture.

These together with other objects and advantages which will become subsequently apparent reside in the details of construction and operation as more fully hereinafter described and claimed, reference being had to the accompanying drawings forming a part hereof, wherein like numerals refer to like parts throughout, and in which:

FIGURE 1 is a perspective view illustrating the safety shield of the present invention associated with the crush rollers, redirecting roller and stripping roller of a carding machine with the remainder of the carding machine illustrated in broken lines;

FIGURE 2 is a schematic sectional view of the carding machine illustrating the relationship of the safety shield and the components of the carding machine;

FIGURE 3 is a front elevational view of the safety shield of the present invention;

FIGURE 4 is a detailed sectional view taken substantially upon a plane passing along section line 4-4 of FIGURE 3 illustrating the connection between the supporting rod and arcuate shield plate;

FIGURE 5 is a detailed sectional view taken substantially upon a plane passing along section lines 55 of FIGURE 3 illustrating further structural details of the clamp structure for supporting the shield from the carding machine;

FIGURE 6 is a transverse, sectional view taken substantially upon a plane passing along section line 66 of FIGURE 3 illustrating the structure for adjustably supporting one of the arcuate plates from the supporting rod for the other shield plate; and

FIGURE 7 is a transverse, sectional view taken substantially upon a plane passing along section line 77 of FIGURE 3 illustrating further structural details of the supporting structure for the arc-uate shield plate.

Referring now to the drawings especially in FIGURE 1, the safety shield of the present invention is generally designated by the numeral 10 and is supported from a horizontal disposed shaft 12 on a carding machine which is generally designated by the numeral 14 and which is of conventional construction and which includes basically a pair of crushing rollers 16 and 18 which are disposed in overlying relation to each other and which receive the textile web or roving 20 therebetween for ironing the web and/or crushing the impurities such as seeds or the like therein. Adjacent the upper crushing roll 16 is a redirecting roll 22 and adjacent the redirecting roll 22 is a stripper roll 24 which is associated with the doffer cylinder 26 in a completely conventional manner so that as the web 20 is removed from the doffer cylinder 26, it will pass under the stripper roll 24 and the redirecting roll 22 and be inserted between the crushing rolls 16 and 18. The structure of the carding machine is completely conventional insofar as the shaft 12 is concerned, the various rolls including the crush rolls, the redirecting roll and the stripper roll and no modification whatsoever is made to the carding machine thus enabling the safety shield of the present invention to be installed on the machine with absolutely no modification thereof.

The safety shield 10 includes a pair of side by side and generally parallel elongated plates or panels 28 and 30 which are preferably constructed of sheet metal but may be constructed of any suitable material such as plastic or the like and each of the plates or panels 28 is arcuately curved in a transverse direction as clearly illustrated in FIGURES 2 and 4. For supporting the arcuate plate or panel 30, as shown generally in FIGURE 2 and more specifically in FIGURES 47, there is provided an elongated supporting rod 32 which is substantially vertically disposed and which extends through a passageway 34 formed in a cylindrical block 36 that is attached to the concave undersurface of the plate 30 by a countersunk screw fastener 38 or the like. The rod 32 is secured in the passage or bore 34 by a suitable setscrew 40 or the like to enable some degree of adjustment of the supporting rod or shaft 32 in relation to the plate 30.

The lower end of the rod 32 is adjustably connected to the shaft 12 by a supporting clamp generally designated by numeral 42 and which, when assembled, is substantially cylindrical in configuration and which can be adjusted longitudinally of the shaft 12 with the rod 32 being vertically adjustable in relation to the shaft 12 and also being capable of angular adjustment in relation to the rod 12 to enable positioning of the shielding plate 30 in the desired optimum position.

As illustrated in FIGURE 5, the adjustable supporting clamp 42 includes two substantially semi-cylindrical sections or segments 44 and 46 with the segment 44 having a passage 48 extending therethrough receiving the lower end of the support rod 32 adjustably with a setscrew 50 intersecting the passage 48 and adjustably locking the support rod 32 in position. The center of the segments 44 and 46 define a hollow area as at52 and one mating edge of the segments 44 and 46 has a substantially S-shape configuration as indicated at 54. The other abutting or mating edges of the segments 44 and 46 are in the form of mating inclined surfaces as at 56. Intersecting the inclined surfaces 56 is a threaded passage 58 and a threaded member 60 is received in the threaded passage so that the screw-threaded member 60 crosses the inclined abutting surfaces 56 to retain them in engaged position and when the surfaces 56 are in engaged position, the S-shaped abutting surfaces are interlocked in such a manner that the clamp will form a cylindrical member mounted on the rod 12. The threaded member 60 also serves as a setscrew for locking the clamp 42 on the supporting shaft or rod 12 of the carding machine so that the clamp can be adjusted longitudinally and rotated in relation to the shaft or rod 12 which is a stationary shaft existent on the machine.

Mounted on the supporting rod 32 is an adjustable clamp structure gene-rally designated by the numeral 62 which supports adjustably a supporting rod 64 which extends toward and supports the shield plate or panel 28 in substantially the same manner as the rod 32 supports the plate or panel 30 in that the supporting rod 64 also extends into a passage 66 in a supporting block 68 attached to the plate 28 by a suitable screw-threaded fastener in the same manner as illustrated in FIGURE 4 and also, the support rod 64 may be adjusted in relation to the support block 68 by using a similar setscrew arrangement as illustrated in FIGURE 4.

The supporting clamp 62 is illustrated in FIGURES 6 and 7 and is in the form of a pair of cylindrical blocks 70 and 72 having a clamp bolt 74 extending through the central area thereof and having interengaging serrations or teeth 76 on the matching engaging surfaces thereof so that by loosening the bolt 74, the plate 72 can be adjusted in relation to the plate 70 which has a passage 78 therethrough receiving the support rod 32 which is clamped in position by a setscrew 80. After the cylindrical member 72 has been adjusted, the nut and bolt structure 74 may be tightened thus locking the cylindrical member 72 in adjusted position. As illustrated in FIGURE 7, the cylindrical member 72 is provided with a passageway 82 receiving the support rod 64 therein with a setscrew 84 being provided for locking the support rod 64 adjustably in position therein thereby enabling the two shield plates 28 and 30 to be adjusted and oriented in the desired position.

As illustrated, the shielding plates or panels underlie the area between the stripper roll 24, redirecting roll 22 and the crush rolls 16 and 18 so that the web 20 moves generally in a straight line and the position of the panels or plates 28 and 30 may be adjusted for optimum orientation to prevent insertion of the fingers between the crush rolls 16 and 18 and also will serve to guide the web toward the area of the crush rolls 16 and 18 so that the web will be more or less automatically fed into the nip or crotch between the rollers 16 and 18 so that the web may pass therethrough for'enabling the crush rollers to perform their usual function.

The foregoing is considered as illustrative only of the principles of the invention. Further, since numerous mod ifications and changes will readily occur to those skilled in the art, it is not desired to limit the invention to the exact construction and operation shown and described, and accordingly all suitable modifications and equivalents may be resorted to, falling within the scope of the invention as claimed.

What is claimed as new is as follows:

1. In combination with atextile carding machine having a pair of driven crushing rollers receiving the web from the carding machine by passage of the web over a stripping roller and redirecting roller, that improvement comprising a safety shield including plate means underlying the area on the intake side of the crushing rollers to prevent entry of the fingers and hands of an operator between the crushing rollers, and means adjustably supporting the plate means for orienting the. plate means in closely spaced underlying relation to the inlet area of the crushing rollers, said plate means being in the forrh of a pair of elongated panels, each of said panels being parallel to the crushing rollers and transversely arcuate with the-convex surface thereof facing upwardly to form a guide for the textile web to guide the textile web towards the nip of the crushing rollers, said means supporting the plate means including a supporting rod connected to one of the panels, a supporting rod connected to the other of said panels, said supporting rods being adjustably connected together with one of the supporting rods extending beyond the other, and clamp means supporting the. supporting rod extending beyond the other to a stationary part of the carding machine for longitudinal and angular adjustment in relation thereto. 7

2. The structure as defined in claim 1 wherein the supporting rod connected to the carding machine is un interrupted, the other supporting rod having an adjustable clamp means engaged with the uninterrupted support rod for vertical adjustment thereof to enable adjustment in the position of the arcuate panel. 7 g

3. The structure as defined in claim 2 wherein said arcuate panels underlie substantially the entire diametrical dimensions of the stripper roll, redirecting roll and crushing rolls. i

4. The structure as defined in claim 3 wherein said arcuate panels are constructed of sheet material and are detachably connected to the upper ends of the supporting rods for enabling replacement of the component parts. v

5. A safety shield for guiding webs from a doffer cylinder to crushing rollers on a carding machine, comprising: shield means, support means attached at'one end to said shield means and at the other end to a point on the machine for arcuate movement about the supporting point and radial movement relative to said point, the axis of said point being spaced from and parallel to the axes of the doffer cylinder and crushing rollers, said shield means including a pair of panels, one of said panels being connected by said support means to said point, the other panel being connected to said support means for arcuate and longitudinal movement about a point on said support means.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS Miyagi V 19- 186 DORSEY NEWTON, Primary Examiner.

U5. (:1. X.R. 19-2o0, 

